Millimeter-wave circuit design of coplanar integrated circuits and superconducting passive components

Wireless communication is revolutionizing global business. As the interactive personal communication service market grows, the need for high-frequency transmitters and receivers will increase. The wide bandwidth requirements of multimedia technology restrict the use of conventional radio and cellular bands because of limited channel capacity. Communication systems will be forced to use higher frequency bands to accommodate the expected large number of users. Currently, communication links are being designed at millimeter-wave frequencies. To be commercially viable, these systems must be available at minimal cost to the telecommunication's provider.To make millimeter-wave communication links cost-effective, the individual circuit must be designed and manufactured with a high yield process. The focus of this thesis is on the design and measurement of a coplanar-based millimeter-wave circuit using GaAs MESFETs. A coplanar waveguide is a planar technology that allows both series and shunt elements to be implemented on the top side of a GaAs wafer. Conventional microstrip technologies involve the development of a backside process, which inhibits yield. A variety of topics involving coplanar lines will be discussed including characteristic impedance and discontinuities. Superconducting coplanar transmission lines will be investigated.Low cost is also the driving factor in the choice of the active components in the circuit designs. Ion-implanted GaAs MESFETs will be shown to obtain the same high frequency performance as costly p-HEMTs structures. The devices will be studied at both room and cryogenic temperatures.Coplanar amplifier and oscillator results will be shown. The K-band amplifiers achieved a gain of 11.25 dB at 20.25 GHz. The phase noise of the Ka-band oscillators was $-$120 dBc/Hz at a offset frequency of 3 MHz. The design of each type of circuit will be discussed.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio